


Loveable Nerds and Superheroes II

by theartofdreaming



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-07-11 01:02:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7018519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theartofdreaming/pseuds/theartofdreaming
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Follow-up to "Loveable Nerds and Superheroes" - it's time to deal with the consequences of that fateful Tuesday afternoon... [sorry for the vagueness but I don't want to spoil the prequel]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Coma

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I finally managed to finish up chapter 1 of this sequel (should I put both works in a series? I wasn't sure).  
> I have started typing up chapter 2 and I'm trying to write a little every day, plus I have a couple of scenes already written out... but I can't make any promises that I'll be updating regularly, sorry. I'm trying my best though and lovely comments always help me write faster ;)  
> My first time writing Wells/Eobard... I hope I got him right...

“I know that you didn't want to get back to school so soon, but I think you went a little too far just to stay in Central City for a few weeks longer, kiddo.” Iris whispered, brushing a stubborn lock of hair out of her nephew's resting face.

Except that Wally wasn't exactly sleeping. He had been in a coma ever since that fateful Tuesday three weeks ago.

Iris still remembered it like it had been just yesterday: the sudden storm, the blinding flash of lightning and the immediate roar of thunder that had followed suit and of course, Barry's phone call informing her that her sweet, 8-year-old nephew just had been struck by said lightning bolt. The wave of sheer panic washing over her, leaving her disoriented and numb. She could barely recall Barry telling her that he would take her nephew to S.T.A.R. Labs and to meet him there; she couldn't remember anything from her drive to the research facility but a frantic “Wally's been hurt, Wally's been hurt” playing on loop in her brain. When she had arrived at the laboratories, Caitlin was already busy stabilizing the 8-year-old boy, Cisco assisting her. Close to the door, Barry was pacing a little faster than an ordinary human would, rubbing his temples nervously. He immediately came to a halt when he noticed Iris entering the med-bay: “Iris! I'm so sorry – I got Wally here as fast as possible; the lightning suddenly crashed through the skylight – again – and...” Barry's rambling became so fast that Iris couldn't make out the individual words anymore (at least not in the shocked state she was in) –

“He's stable,” Caitlin announced, interrupting Barry. Iris wanted to let out a gasp of relief, when she heard the second part Caitlin's statement, “but he's... he's unresponsive.”  
“What?” The journalist couldn't believe what she was hearing

Caitlin looked at Iris, tentative look on her face, “Wally – he is in a coma.”

Iris couldn't hear anything, think anything, feel anything in that very moment. Wally, _**her**_ exceptionally bright, kind-hearted Wally was in a coma! She'd just seen him happy and in perfect health mere fifteen minutes ago!

It was Barry's disbelieving voice that broke Iris out of her numb state: “Are you sure?!”

Taken aback by Barry's wide-eyed look and the forceful tone of his question, Caitlin shot a glance of bewilderment at the CSI: “Yes, I'm sure...”

Before Caitlin could say much more, Barry began pacing about the room again, nervously running both of his hands through his hair and over his face, murmuring something under his breath.

Iris eyed Barry worriedly, then glanced at Caitlin, hoping that the brunette would know what to make of that strange behavior; but Caitlin had the same perplexed look on her face as Iris.

“Man, what are you talking about? What is going on with you?” Cisco exclaimed, preventing Barry from pacing a hole into the floor.

The speedster finally stopped and motioned to Wally who was lying eerily still on the examination couch: “This was **not** an ordinary lightning strike! Wally was struck by lightning at **my** crime lab, then crashed into the shelf where I stack my chemicals and got practically doused with them!”

Caitlin and Cisco looked at Barry saucer-eyed: “Just like -”

“Yeah, just like my 'accident'! I mean – what are the odds of the same thing happening again?!” Barry exclaimed, exasperated.

“I think you are missing a crucial element here, Mr. Allen” Dr. Wells' voice announced from the entrance of the den, making everybody's heads snap into his direction, completely taken aback by the sudden appearance of the wheelchair-bound scientist, “the night **you** were struck by lightning and exposed to the chemicals in your laboratory, the particle accelerator - “

“Went kaboom” came Cisco's interjection.

Wells lifted a hand, gesturing at Cisco as if in affirmation, echoing the engineer's words: “Went kaboom.” The brilliant head of S.T.A.R. Labs wheeled closer to the group currently huddled around Wally, his piercing blue eyes fixed at the 8-year-old boy with a calculating stare that made Iris's skin crawl: “How would you explain that?”

The young scientist trio exchanged helpless looks, apparently at loss for an answer.

“I'm not sure,” Barry conceded, eyes traveling back to Wally, unreadable expression on his face, “but I can't help but _feel_ there is some kind of connection,” a thought crossed his mind, making Barry turn his attention back to Dr. Wells: “Maybe the anti-matter, the dark energy and x-elements that were dispersed when the particle accelerator exploded – maybe they did not all manifest themselves that night? Couldn't residues of them still have been floating around in the atmosphere and channeled by that storm cloud today? The thunderstorm had come about pretty suddenly. ”

Barry could tell by the expression on Wells' face that his mentor wanted to disagree; before there was any chance for an argument, a beeping sound from the console drew everybody's attention to it. Caitlin, who was closest to the monitors, went over to check: Detective West was about to join them, very obviously distraught.

A minute later, Joe entered the den and Barry and the S.T.A.R. Labs Team did their best to fill the cop in on the current status of his grandson while Iris stayed rooted next to Wally, running a gentle hand through her nephew's hair.

* * *

Even three weeks later, Iris could still be found by Wally's side, talking to him softly: “I also have to call your mom tonight to keep her up-to-date about your condition; I'd really like to give her good news this time.” Iris couldn't bear another night with a sobbing Mary on the other end of the line, consoling her sister-in-law with reassuring words which barely convinced Iris herself, “Your parents are really worried about you, Wally.”

Calling Mary and Rudy to tell them the bad news had been the absolute worst; it had made the horrible incident even more real than it had already felt. Iris could still recall the terror in Mary's voice that soon had turned into panic and despite Iris's best efforts to stay calm, she had gotten so choked up that her dad had to take over the phone. She still remembered Barry's arms enveloping her in a consoling hug, steadying her in every sense of the word. “Wally is gonna be okay, I promise,” Barry had said quietly but with such conviction in his voice that Iris had had no choice but to believe him. Iris had buried her face deeper into his shirt, drawing comfort from the soothing, familiar scent of just... Barry and the warmth and support of his arms around her trembling form and listened to the deep, strong voice of her Dad on the phone.

* * *

Of course, Mary and Rudy decided to drive over to Central City immediately. Wells was less than pleased with more outsiders coming to their crime-fighting base but Barry would hear nothing of it: “Their son just got hit by lightning! Of course they're coming over! They have every right to!”

The misty look in his eyes reminded Iris that Barry's own father had never gotten the chance to visit his son during his nine-month long coma. She gave Barry a comforting hug of her own, while Wells responded with a curt “can't argue with that”, then turned towards Cisco, giving the engineer stern and precise instructions on how to 'prepare' the facility for the upcoming visitors.

 

Two hours later, Wally's parents arrived at S.T.A.R. Labs, both extremely anxious. Iris had used the time until their arrival to compose herself, to be strong for her brother and his wife but when Mary started crying as soon as she saw her son in his comatose state, her resolve began to crumble already. Pulling herself together, Iris walked over to Mary to give her sister-in-law a comforting hug while Joe and the others further explained what had happened to Wally. The kid's parents reacted very differently to the more detailed report – while Mary's sobs became even more violent, Iris could see the apprehensive look on her brother's face change into a stoic one, his posture turning rigid and his eyes cold; ever since their mother's death many years ago (it had been so long ago that Iris could not really remember her mom aside from the photographs and stories her Dad had told her; her brother on the other hand had been old enough to actually remember their mother's passing), Rudy had a tendency to close himself off completely whenever he was threatened to be overcome by his emotions – a habit that was the main reason for the emotional distance between Wally and his dad – and source of many fruitless and often frustrating conversations Iris had held with both father and son.

The only upside to Rudy's emotional detachment in moments like this was that Caitlin could relatively easily convince Rudy (and Mary, though to a lesser degree) that it would be for the best if Wally was to stay at S.T.A.R. Labs. After all, they were familiar with this kind of injury, the risk of multi-resistant bacteria going round like it sometimes happened in hospitals was practically zero and they had state-of-the-art equipment to treat their son with the best care imaginable.

Iris couldn't help but be impressed by Caitlin's impromptu but very competent list of benefits S.T.A.R. Labs could offer. It certainly did the trick, since both Mary and Rudy agreed to let their son be treated in Central City for the time being.

Until the end of the weekend, Mary and Rudy stayed over at Iris and Joe's place, visiting their son frequently (which had resulted in having to move the secret crime-fighting unit to another, more crammed room in S.T.A.R. Labs... and lots of glaring by Dr. Wells). After that, Rudy and Mary had to return back to Blue Valley for their jobs; Iris knew her brother well enough to know that he was burying himself in work to keep his mind occupied by anything else but the glaringly obvious matter at hand and Mary just couldn't take the sight of her only child in a coma anymore, at least not after the second week of Wally's unchanged, unresponsive state. Both parents visited every weekend but aside from that, Mary depended on Iris or Joe for semi-daily updates on her son's condition.

* * *

The clicking of heels startled Iris out of her thoughts; she looked up to see that Caitlin had entered the room and another glance at the clock confirmed Iris's suspicions that it was time for a 'change of shift'.

“Alright kiddo, I've got to go now; I'll leave it to McSnurtle and Caitlin to look after you,” Iris gave Caitlin a grateful smile, before she gently tucked the plushy turtle under the boy's limp arm (the stuffed animal used to be hers – she had given it to Wally the first time he had come over to stay with his grandpa and aunt and he had been carrying around the turtle ever since).

She pressed a gentle kiss on Wally's forehead, brushed that stubborn lock of hair out of his face once more and shouldered her purse, ready to go.

The first two weeks either her Dad or Barry had had to pry her away from her nephew's side, dragging her home to get some sleep... only now she was finally able tear herself away from Wally, if only to not further worry the two of them.

Iris cast another look at the boy's unconscious form: “I just can't help but feel bad, leaving him like this.”

Caitlin gave a sympathetic smile: “I'll call you immediately should something change, I promise,” she reassured Iris for the umpteenth time, then added “his vitals look very promising, a lot like Barry's in that ninth month before he woke up... Children heal a lot quicker than adults, after all.”

Iris returned the smile, grateful for Caitlin's encouraging words; she knew that the doctor never said what she didn't believe herself.

“Thanks, Caitlin. For everything.” Iris was genuinely thankful for the doctor's calm but kind temperament; it certainly helped her to know that someone so skilled but also sympathetic was taking care of her beloved nephew.

“Of course.”

“See you tomorrow, then.”

Iris turned around to leave, when both women heard a silent groan form behind them: “Uuuh... Aunt Iris?”

The journalist stopped dead in her tracks, eyes widening: “Wally?!”

 


	2. Awakening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wally is awake!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm finally back with another chapter! I'm sorry that it took me so long but my attention is currently divided between Rush Hour and this story... - and my upcoming exams :/  
> Well, at least this chapter is pretty long :)

Iris immediately hurried over to her nephew's bedside, the boy carefully sitting up, rubbing his eyes blearily with his IV-free arm.

“What's going on?” The 8-year-old asked, confused, almost crushed to pieces by his aunt's bear hug.

Meanwhile, Caitlin had gone over to the computer console, quickly informing Cisco and Dr. Wells (who still were in the building, apparently) of the patient's awakening, before going into full doctor-mode, checking the boy's vitals and pupils reactivity.

“Oh Wally, we were all so worried about you!” Iris exclaimed agitatedly; but before her nephew could even figure out why so, Caitlin directed a more pressing question at the 8-year-old: “What is the last thing you remember?”

Wally furrowed his eyebrows in concentration, carefully recounting his most recent memories: “Aunt Iris had just dropped me off at Barry's crime lab; he had promised to answer my questions before we're going to S.T.A.R. Labs. I had already put my questions in order but Barry said that he had to clear up his work bench first. I wanted to help him so it would be done quicker, so he let me put back the cleaned up beakers on the shelf... And then...” he paused, nervously fiddling with a seam of McSnurtle's flipper.

“Then what?” Iris asked carefully, exchanging worried looks with Caitlin.

Wally lifted his eyes, a confused look etched on his face: “I can't remember.”

The expression on Iris's face softened. She had no idea how to break the news to her nephew but to tell him plainly (if gently) how it was: “You've been struck by lightning.”

The boys eyes nearly popped out of his head, his jaw literally dropping, “What?!?” He slowly regained his composure; if he wasn't so certain that his aunt wouldn't joke about something like that, Wally would have thought she was pulling his leg. “Like Barry?” he clarified, still wrapping his mind around this info.

Iris exchanged a meaningful look with Caitlin: “Yeah, like Barry.”

“Whoa” the boy whispered, perplexed, bringing up his hands to examine them, as if he was expecting them to look completely different. They must have appeared perfectly normal to him, because his gaze trailed down to his feet (he kicked the blanket that had covered him aside), assessing the rest of his body. The boy wiggled his toes tentatively - “And I'm completely fine?” he asked disbelievingly and Iris couldn't help but notice the slight pout on her nephew's lips (probably because he was disappointed to not even have a scar as proof).

“We sure hope so,” she smiled at him encouragingly, relieved to see him act so normal and Wally-like. But Iris remembered that there was one more thing the 8-year-old needed to know: “But Wally, listen – after you got hit by lightning, you were asleep for some time.”

The boy looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face: “For how long?”

“It's Thursday,” Iris said, then added tentatively: “ – three weeks later.”

“Three weeks!?!” the boy exclaimed, shocked. He caught himself pretty fast when he realized, deflated: “Oh man, school has already started!”

Iris had a hard time suppressing a grin (it was good to know that her nephew had his priorities straight), “I'm afraid so, kiddo. But I'm sure you'll manage to catch up on whatever you missed.”

Apparently, it wasn't the amount of schoolwork he had missed out on that was really bothering Wally: “Oh man... now I'll probably will have to sit in the front row,” the boy pouted, shoulders sagging. Iris laughed out loud and ruffled her nephew's hair affectionately, glad that he seemed to be completely back to normal.

“I think you'll live. Now, I'm gonna tell Grandpa and your parents the good news,” Iris glanced over to Caitlin to see the doctor armed with a clipboard and pen, a focused look on her face, “ and Caitlin will make sure that you are really okay.” The doctor nodded determinedly, then loosened up a little, smiling at her 'patient'.

Iris headed towards the other end of the room, not wanting to bother Caitlin during the examination. She quickly sent a text to her father, then dialed the number of Wally's parents. Mary, who probably had already been waiting for Iris's call, picked up immediately.

“Hey Mary, it's Iris,” the journalist started the conversation with a big smile on her face, “I have got some great news for you...”

After a short report of Wally's state (awake and perfectly fine, as far as Iris could tell), Mary assured that Rudy and her would set out for S.T.A.R. Labs immediately and then quickly hung up (to finish packing their bags they had started to get ready for Friday afternoon).

Iris had just finished her call with her sister-in-law when Barry _**whooshed**_ in, concerned, pushing off his cowl in a way that had his hair utterly disheveled: “Okay guys, what's going on? Cisco only sent me a text with ' **S.T.A.R. Labs** ' and a lot of exclamation marks, so – oh” Barry's ramble was cut short when his eyes landed on Wally – awake. The boy looked at him with big, round eyes, mouth agape.

“You... you're the Flash!” the boy exclaimed excitedly. Barry's hand immediately shot up to the back of his neck, a habit he exhibited whenever he was nervous and/or embarrassed.

Caitlin glared at Barry in a very menacing fashion, muttering “he can run on water but he can't keep his identity a secret” under her breath, just loud enough for Iris to hear.

The journalist could barely suppress a snort, while amusedly watching Barry's deer-in-the-headlights-expression turn into his characteristic sheepish grin when Cisco and Dr. Wells entered the cortex, taking in the scene before them: unmasked, abashedly-looking Barry in his Flash suit and wide-awake, saucer-eyed Wally, who was still gaping at the costumed hero.

Wells didn't look too pleased while Cisco just started shaking his head at Barry, “Seriously, man?”

This finally broke Wally out of his trance: “So that's why the Flash – I mean, you – knew my name!”

Now it was Barry's turn to be astounded: “What?”

Iris started to grin, knowing perfectly well what her nephew was referring to.

“At the park, I mean, when that gas-guy had attacked Grandpa,” Wally clarified. Realization began to dawn on Barry's face while Cisco couldn't help but throw in a “We call him 'The Mist', actually”, earning himself disbelieving looks from the rest of the S.T.A.R. Labs Team (and Iris), “Nevermind, go on.” The engineer motioned awkwardly for the boy to continue, then started digging a bag of gummy bears out of his pocket.

Wally quickly regained his focus: “And that explains why you blurred your face although you were already wearing a mask! Because I knew your face underneath it,” the 8-year-old noticed cleverly. Barry was at a loss for words.

The boy went on: “And that's why you didn't take your CSI kit with you when the gas attack at the mall happened! -Your costume was in that duffle bag, right?”

“Wow, you're really bad at this” Cisco remarked with a chuckle and a nod towards Barry, while offering his gummy bears to Wally. With a shy “thanks”, the 8-year-old fished out a red gummy bear from the bag, nervously observing the adults in front of him:

Iris had a bright smile and a look of pride on her face, Caitlin, with her eyes opened wide and lips pursed, looked surprised and impressed at the same time. Dr. Wells had the same kind of eerie calm about him as ever, casually wiping his glasses with the hem of his shirt. Barry rubbed the back of his neck nervously: “I guess you Wests just are too perceptive...”

The CSI's statement had Caitlin roll her eyes in an exasperated manner, while Wally puffed out his chest with pride, causing Iris and Barry to exchange amused looks.

-“Well, if we don't want anymore Wests in on your secret, Mr. Allen, I'd advise we make sure of that,” Dr. Wells pointed out curtly, effectively cutting short the pleasant moment.

“Oh right, right,” Barry responded, heading towards Wally, making sure that the 8-year-old was absolutely fine. He then began explaining the issue and importance of his secret identity. Iris shortly tore her eyes away from this scene to cast a wary glance at Dr. Wells who was currently consulting with Caitlin and Cisco; of course Iris understood why the head of S.T.A.R. Labs was so insistent about keeping Barry's identity a secret (he wouldn't be a good mentor if he wasn't) but how he had said it and the way he had eyed her nephew... it simply gave the young journalist the creeps. Shrugging off those unpleasant thoughts, Iris redirected her attention back to her favorite nerds:

Apparently, Wally had caught on the whole secret I.D.-matter fairly quickly (the reasoning was pretty much like in the comic books he loved to read, so the boy was already familiar with the concept) and was now eager to pledge himself to secrecy, offering to seal his promise with a pinky swear. Watching Barry kneeling in front of her nephew, his little finger entwined with Wally's (and the 8-year-old wearing a deadly serious expression on his face), Iris couldn't help but smile at their interaction. As soon as he had been sworn into secrecy, Wally started bombarding Barry with questions, until the arrival of Grandpa Joe directed the boy's attention away from his hero (finally giving Barry a chance to go and change into his civilian clothes).

Making use of the time they had left before Mary and Rudy were to be expected, Barry and his friends from S.T.A.R. Labs made sure that the facility was sufficiently prepped for the awaited visitors (specifically the den and med bay), so that nothing would accidentally expose their crime-fighting base as exactly that.

When Mary and Rudy finally did arrive, it was a very strange encounter: Mary, so overjoyed that tears of happiness were running down her cheeks, was effusively showering Wally with hugs and kisses, causing the boy to grimace. Rudy on the other hand was standing awkwardly and stiffly next to his wife, only the fond look in his eyes betraying his rigid pose. Iris could barely contain an eye-roll upon seeing her brother's odd behavior; it was just too frustrating sometimes.

After Mary had calmed down a bit and Wally had managed to wiggle free from his mother's clingy (and due to her tears slightly damp) embrace, Rudy informed his father and sister (as well as the S.T.A.R. Labs Team) that he and Mary had made arrangements so they could stay until the rest of the week.

Team Flash exchanged meaningful looks; they all wanted to find out if Barry's hypothesis (that Wally had been affected the same way as him) would reveal itself to be true or not but as long as Wally's parents were around they could not conduct the necessary tests to find that out – at least not without putting Barry's secret identity at risk.

 

Since there was not much they could do with Mary and Rudy being at S.T.A.R. Labs pretty much all the time, Barry and Iris decided to catch a break and go for a cup (or in Iris's case, multiple cups) of coffee at Jitters.

* * *

“I still can't get over the fact that you used to work here and we never met until those six weeks ago; I've been coming by for my daily coffee fix for months.” Barry said disbelievingly, when he and Iris sat down in a secluded corner at Jitters, for the first time since Wally had been struck by lightning.

Iris just shrugged; with hundreds of people going to Jitters for their coffee day in and day out, it was hard to keep track of all the faces she had seen – impossible, even: “Maybe we did meet and just didn't realize it?”

Barry was quick to swallow the sip of coffee he just had taken, shaking his head fervently: “No, I'm sure we've never seen each other here before; I would have noticed and remembered you, most definitely.”

“Aww, “ Iris smiled, flattered, “that's a pretty good answer, Mr. Allen.” – Barry tried hard not to look too pleased with himself – “It's a shame, though,” Iris added, eyes twinkling flirtatiously over the brim of her own coffee mug, “I made the best cup of coffee you could get in the entire city.”

“Oh yeah?” the speedster replied, matching her tone, “is that so?”

“I've been told so, multiple times – no really,” Iris insisted, “one customer even described it as 'heavenly'.” (Granted, it had been a guy who had also tried hitting on her, pulling off that whole 'did it hurt when you fell from the sky'-shtick but who cares about such trivial details?)

“Well, then it is even more of a shame that we haven't met earlier, isn't it?” Barry asked playfully, very obviously enjoying the return of their carefree banter, “Now you are a badass reporter and I missed my chance to get a 'heavenly' cup of coffee from a beautiful barista.”

He was rewarded for that remark with another of Iris's beaming smiles, that soon turned into a sly one: “Ah, maybe we should remedy that...”

“Huh?”

“I still have the key to the shop...”

-”You do?!”

“It's not been that long since I stopped working here and there's been a lot going on...” Iris reasoned, listing all the turbulent events that had occurred in the meantime, “first settling in with my new job at CCPN, then summer vacation started and Wally came to visit... meeting you... crazy meta-human trying to kill my Dad and then Wally got struck by lightning...” the journalist concluded her enumeration with a plain shrug,”I simply forgot about it and nobody has called or mailed me about giving it back so far...”

“So you're suggesting that we...?”

“Do something different for date-night,” Iris grinned, winking.

Barry couldn't help but laugh: “For the past three weeks the closest thing we had to a 'date-night' was spending the evening together at Wally's bedside, talking, before I forced you to go home for some proper sleep... Just going somewhere else than S.T.A.R. Labs or your house would qualify as 'different'...”

The journalist shook her head: “Those weeks don't count; come on, I'll make us some great coffee-”

“I thought it was 'heavenly'-” the CSI interjected, smiling impishly.

“Fine, 'heavenly' coffee,” Iris repeated, rolling her eyes at Barry's silliness, “I'll bring by a whole load of desserts for dinner and we can maybe even picnic on the rooftop... come on, it'll be fun!”

Seeing the hesitant look on his face, Iris added: “I'll talk with Tracy or whoever has the night shift that day to make sure it's all right; I'll have to give back the key afterward anyhow... So, what you say; ready to do something completely out of the ordinary for once in your life?”

Amused, Iris watched Barry almost choking on his coffee from laughter, trying to keep a nonchalant expression on his face: “Yeah, I guess it's time for me to do something completely crazy, isn't it?”

* * *

On Sunday they had to face the most difficult part to get over: Mary and Rudy were about to head home and of course, wanted to take Wally with them. Luckily, Caitlin was well-prepared and explained in detail how cataracts can develop after a lightning strike and that it would be better to keep the boy under close observation for at least another week. Iris helpfully added that it would be far too cumbersome for her sister-in-law to drive to and fro Blue Valley and S.T.A.R. Labs all the time and Barry chipped in that he had experienced metabolic troubles soon after his awakening, emphasizing the big role the ongoing medical care at S.T.A.R. had played to get him to fully recover.

Neither Mary nor Rudy were particularly keen on leaving their son behind at S.T.A.R. Labs (again) but of course they didn't want to risk Wally's health in any way – so they agreed to let him stay another week in Central City.

Naturally, Wally was thrilled to have another school-free week ahead of him (not to mention that he would get to spend the week with his Grandpa, Aunt Iris and Barry – who was the Flash!), though his excitement was slightly dampened when his mother and aunt arranged to have his mom drop off his schoolwork at Grandpa's house so he could try to catch up on what he had missed so far. Still, a week with no school was a week with no school, so Wally knew better than to complain.

After awkwardly saying good-bye to his parents (it was just weird how they made such a fuss about being separated for merely a week, when they had been totally okay with him spending his entire summer vacation away from home – of course, that was before he had been in a coma for three weeks – three weeks that had felt like a catnap to him), Wally noticed how Barry's friends from S.T.A.R. Labs visibly relaxed, obviously glad to see his parents leave. The boy also observed how everyone was casting strange glances in his direction and couldn't help but wonder aloud: “I'm not staying here because you think I could develop a… catar-something , am I?”

“That's a thing for tomorrow, kid.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The bit when Iris teases Barry about her 'heavenly' coffee was inspired by a story by RailLockhart here on ao3; it's called "it gets to friday and i give you a call" (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4138659) it's super cute and sweet and I highly recommend it ;)


	3. Test Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to test out Barry's hypothesis!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm super sorry that it took me so long to finally upload the next chapter (there were my exams and vacation, a tiny writer's block, a four-week internship, other works-in-progress and now the busy start of the new semester - what I'm trying to say is, there have been extenuating circumstances, so the long wait can not be entirely attributed to my laziness ^^;)  
> The chapter is pretty long though :)

The next morning, Barry, Wally, Iris, Caitlin, Cisco and Dr. Wells met up at the deserted testing field of Ferris Air on the outskirts of the city, where Barry had first shown off his powers to the S.T.A.R. Labs Team.

Wally got out of Iris's car, taking in the vast grounds and the S.T.A.R. Labs van and equipment that had already been set up. Aunt and nephew walked up to the scientists who were finishing up the last few preparations.

The two Wests were greeted joyfully by Barry and Cisco; Caitlin gave them a distracted smile, intently typing something into her tablet and Wells only bestowed an almost unnoticeable nod on them, piercing blue eyes lingering for a brief moment on Wally before returning his attention back to the computer he was working on.

Wally kept looking around the field, as if anticipating something big and crazy to turn up... Aside from a gentle breeze causing a few sheets of paper that hadn't yet been placed under the paper weights distributed all over the tables to sail to the ground and Barry and Aunt Iris chatting cheerfully, nothing was going on.

“So... what are we doing here?” The 8-year-old boy asked confused, having expected something exciting to happen, after all that cryptic behavior from yesterday.

Cisco practically beamed at the kid, obviously very excited: “We want to figure if you being struck by lightning has affected you in the same way as Barry.”

Wally needed a few seconds before he completely understood the implications of Cisco's remark. When it finally clicked, the boy looked at Barry with wide eyes: “Wait, you got your powers from that lightning bolt?!”

“More or less... ,” the forensic scientist confirmed vaguely, before adding, “the explosion of the particle accelerator played an important part, too.”

Wally scrunched up his face: “But there was no particle accelerator explosion when I was hit.”

Before Barry had a chance to reply, Dr. Wells interjected: “Well, our Mr. Allen here believes that the storm from the day you were struck by said lightning bolt may have been connected with aftereffects of the particle accelerator explosion... which would be very belated and fairly unlikely, but since your recovery did bear a certain resemblance to his own healing process, it certainly deserves to be checked out.” The head of S.T.A.R. Labs surely looked like he was eager to test out that theory, but Iris couldn't help but feel that he probably was rather hoping to falsify Barry's hypothesis... Though Iris had no particular idea why that would be the case.

Wally, on the other hand, just shrugged, “I don't really feel any different than before, but okay.”

“You would expect a little more enthusiasm from an 8-year-old at the prospect of having superpowers, tsk,” Cisco joked, shaking his head. “I even made you a Flash suit in your size, kiddo, so-”

“Really?!” Wally interrupted, staring at the engineer saucer-eyed.

“Yup,” Cisco nodded, obviously pleased with the sudden excitement displayed on the boy's face, ”inside the van.” 

Wally practically beamed at Barry and his aunt, impatiently rocking on the balls of his feet, “What are we waiting for?!”

Cisco turned to Barry and Iris as well, grinning like a Cheshire cat: “Now that's more like it.”

* * *

It didn't take long for Wally to put on the suit. However, when they boy got out the van, he looked considerably less excited than before.

“It does look cool, sure,” the 8-year-old acknowledged, tugging on his cowl, “but this hood is super uncomfortable! Can I keep it off? You all know who I am anyways... -What?” The boy added, noticing how suddenly everybody was glancing at Cisco who just looked deeply offended.

The engineer crossed his arms defiantly, pouting a little: “Okay, so firstly, you cannot keep the cowl off... Besides looking great, it also has a built-in two-way communication system so we can keep in contact with you... Because this suit is both well-designed **and** functional! And secondly, thank you very much for your input on how superhero suits should be constructed, Edna!”

“Edna?” Wally stopped tugging at the cowl for a second, confused.

“Edna Mode,” Cisco clarified. Wally still looked at the engineer with a lost expression on his face, eyes flitting to his aunt who only shrugged, just as clueless as her nephew. 

“From _The Incredibles_?” Cisco supplied cautiously, an alarming suspicion creeping up on him.

No reaction. From both Wests.

“Oh my god...”

Barry pinched the bridge of his nose, knowing that another rant, this time of tremendous proportions, was afoot. 

And sure enough, Cisco quickly recovered from his stunned silence: “Iris, you allowed for your nephew to turn 8 years old without him ever having seen _The Incredible_ s?! How can you sleep at night?”

“Cisco... this is not what we are here for,” Caitlin finally intervened, rolling her eyes at her friend's antics.

The unnerved and exasperated looks from the rest of the S.T.A.R. Labs Team were just barely enough to put an end to Cisco's tirade.

“Alright, fine,” he conceded, “but we **will** talk about this.”

* * *

They had Wally start sprinting for multiple times now and nothing out of the ordinary had happened as of yet. Dr. Wells seemed weirdly satisfied with their trials so far whereas the others were mostly surprised – Barry's theory might have been unlikely but aside from the missing particle accelerator explosion, it had been pretty plausible; moreover, unlikely was still more probable than impossible and they had all experienced first-hand how even the impossible had become solid reality... 

“Sorry,” Wally apologized after the 15th try, picking up on the deflated mood of the group, “I told you I'm not feeling any different.”

The boy had barely finished his sentence when Iris noticed a change in Barry's posture, a look of epiphany flashing across his face-

“I think we should just take a break for now,” Barry proposed suddenly, much to the surprise of Cisco and Caitlin, who exchanged confused looks.

“Really?”

“Yeah... I think we're putting too much pressure on this – Wally, you like playing ball, right? Are you up for a round?” Barry asked nonchalantly, producing a simple baseball out of nowhere (Iris could have sworn that Barry's silhouette had been blurry for just a second.)

“Okay, sure” the 8-year-old replied, a little baffled by Barry's suggestion, but glad to finally get to do something else.

The two of them retreated to the side, while Caitlin, Cisco and Wells gathered to discuss the current situation and what they were to do next. Iris kept an eye on 'her boys', watching them toss the ball between them back and forth.

Nothing extraordinary was happening and Iris started to doubt her initial thought that Barry had some sort of covert plan when Barry suddenly threw the baseball way past Wally – and the boy just took off with a sudden ' _whoosh_ ', leaving the others to stare wide-eyed at the spot where he had been just a second ago. 

“I'll explain in a minute,” Barry promised triumphantly (as he was the first one to recover), before taking off to catch up to the young boy. Barely a minute later, both speedsters returned, with Wally grinning from ear to ear and practically bouncing towards his aunt, tugging on Iris's sleeve excitedly while talking a mile a minute: “Ohmygosh, didyousee, AuntIris? Didyou? Itwassoawesome, likeonesecondI'mhereandthen' _whoosh_ 'I'moverthereand –ohman, thisisjustsocool!!!”

“I did see, yeah,” was all the response Iris could muster, still taken aback, “um, how exactly did that come about?”

Barry smiled widely, proud to have figured it out: “It's just came to my mind... We simply presumed that by bringing Wally here, it would pan out exactly like when I was here first with the team... But we'd neglected a plain, but very important difference – I had already accessed my powers when I'd come here,” the speedster pointed out. 

“Oh, of course! I always forget about that,” Cisco exclaimed, waving his hands dismissively, “accidentally running past a cab you've been trying to hail and ending up at the other end of the city is such an anticlimactic beginning for a superhero career though... I prefer to think of our Team Flash/testing ground-moment as zero hour – way cooler.”

“Way cooler,” Iris chimed in teasingly, backed up by Wally's “Definitely.” She watched the tips of Barry's ears taking on a slight shade of pink.

“Well, my point is,” the speedster continued hurriedly, ”I had already known by then that I could run inhumanly fast. But if somebody had just told me that I was able to run faster than the speed of sound, I wouldn't have believed them. And I think we can conclude from previous experiences that me believing that I can do whatever needs to be done is an important factor, can't we?” (The members of Team Flash were nodding a little too effusively at that part for Barry's taste.) “Plus, it's not like having super speed feels any different from having none; at least not before you have felt that rush of energy coursing through you while **really** running for the first time.

-At least, that what it was like for me,” Barry added, looking at Wally for confirmation.

“No, yeah, it's just like you said,” the boy nodded, smiling brightly, almost bouncing from exhilaration.

“So basically, by throwing that ball, you just provided a random, but adequate trigger,” Wells observed thoughtfully, while Caitlin, Cisco and Iris were still busy wrapping their heads around Barry's explanation.

Wally scrunched up his nose, eyeing the baseball in his hand. Shrugging, he let the ball fall to the ground, then, with a wide, impish smile decided that he was in the mood for a different game to play.

“Tag, you're it!” the 8-year-old shouted suddenly, swatting Barry's arm. He then took off with a ' _whoosh_ '.

Completely taken by surprise, Barry stood rooted to the ground, a baffled look on his face. He recovered quickly, however, a boyish smile tugging at his lips before he chased after Wally. 

Iris exchanged a telling look with Caitlin, then started to shake her head fondly at her boys' childish behaviors.

* * *

Realizing what he could do, Wally could barely contain his excitement any longer and was more than eager to test out this new ability of his - he also very soon learned that he had the ability to heal pretty quickly (as well as the fact that road rash hurt pretty badly).

“Okay, _Wall-y Coyote_ , when I upgrade that suit, I'll definitely factor in that you are pretty clumsy,” Cisco teased back at S.T.A.R. Labs, while Wally got his wounds cleaned by Caitlin and Iris.

“Hey!” The boy protested, pouting.

“You mocked **my** suit buddy; I take that very personally.”

“He does,” Barry confirmed with a telling look on his face, “one of my suits got blown to bits – I had barely managed out of it in time – and he just wouldn't stop bringing that up for **three more weeks**.” Barry sent a glare in Cisco's direction, who pointedly ignored the reproachful tone in his best friend's voice.

“First off, back then it was still **my** suit and second, that had been my favorite suit out of the three I had made by then.”

Barry just rolled his eyes demonstratively, whereas Caitlin sighed wearily.

“They have this conversation every single time the suit's not completely intact,” the doctor muttered low-spirited, earning herself a sympathetic look from Iris.

“Shouldn't it be Barry's suit?” Wally asked naively, brow furrowed.

Cisco let out a short laugh: “Oh, Barry still has got a long way to go before I let him call it his suit, kiddo, believe me... He's earned the right to call it **our** suit, though.”

“A right I don't make use of,” Barry added, receiving disbelieving stares from Cisco, Caitlin and Iris, “... often.”

“You guys are soo weird,” Wally announced with a wide, tooth-gaped smile.

“Says the kid who hasn't watched _The Incredibles_ ,” Cisco retorted.

* * *

Because they had spent most of their day at S.T.A.R. Labs, both Barry and Iris had to drop by their workplaces late afternoon to get some work done. Iris didn't mind at all; according to a lead she had gotten by a source of hers, she knew there was going to be a quite interesting 'meeting' at Baldwin Towers this evening. She went over her notes again, triple-checking them just to be sure. 

It was already dark out when Iris left CCPN to get to the meeting place, an abandoned building which was currently under construction. Five minutes after she had arrived, two suspiciously looking figures entered the construction zone. Iris waited _-five-six-seven-_ heartbeats, then quietly slipped into the building, pressing the record button on her phone.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Iris had everything she had come for; all she had to do was get to the exit and-

_**rumble**_.

'Oh no,' Iris thought horrified, staring at the pile of rubble she had stumbled into, not daring to move a muscle, 'maybe they didn't notice...-'

“Did you hear something?” 

'Shit, shit, shit' was all that came to the journalist's mind when she heard footsteps coming closer to the position she was huddled at. Her eyes flickered across the room, searching for an escape route. There was none (at least not without giving away her location). She heard the clicking sound of releasing the safety of a gun Okay, so at least one armed guy. Another click sounded. Make that two. The footsteps were drawing closer. Iris stopped the recording on her phone, knowing that she wouldn't get any more information now anyway (besides, she had gotten what she needed), instead pulling up the only contact that would be able to help her. She eyed that not-yet-finished wall a few feet from her. 'Let's hope these guys are terrible shots,' Iris prayed. The footsteps were now just around the corner of her hiding spot. 

Iris hit the dialing button and ran.

Lucky for her, the armed guys were so taken aback by her sudden movement that Iris could take cover behind a barely finished pillar before the first shots were fired. The phone rang. Iris hurried further away from wherever the bullets were coming from, the maze of half-finished walls and construction foil disorienting her completely – _**where's the damn exit?!**_

Finally, her call got picked up: “Hey Iris, what's up?” 

“Barry! I need your help. Now.” Bullets were whizzing past her. The sound of shattered glass rang in her right ear, apparently coming from Barry's end of the line.

“Were those gun shots?!” His voice sounded panicked.

“Yeah, I'm at Baldwin Towers,” Iris said breathlessly, her words almost drown out by the noise of the gunfire, “I can't find a way out.”

“Ahh... – Window, is there a window?” Barry asked, voice still strained. Iris had a bad feeling about where this was gonna lead to.

She crouched behind a half-finished wall, hoping not to be discovered - “Over here!” _**Damn.**_

“Yeah. Up ahead.” The men were still firing their guns in Iris's direction, shooting the window pane ahead of her to pieces.

Iris scurried behind a (blessedly) solid wall, her, bullets raining at the spot she's been at just a second ago, “Okay, I'm by the window, why?” 

She really hoped Barry wasn't going to suggest what she was suspecting he would-

“Okay, great... you need to jump.”

_** Aaand he did. ** _

“What, are you crazy?! Barry, no way!” Iris risked a peek around the corner, eliciting another round of bullets flying in her direction.

“Iris! Do you trust me?”

And Iris realized that no matter the circumstances, she'd never have to think about the answer to that particular question twice–

“Yes, I trust you.”

“Okay,” Barry said, his voice completely calm and collected now, “then jump.”

Trying her hardest not to think too much about what she was going to do, Iris hung up and put her cell in her back pocket, muttering “IcandothisIcandothis,” under her breath. She could hear the footsteps of the guys behind her, coming closer and closer and before she had a chance to change her mind, Iris was running forward – and leaped out of window.

* * *

Her own screaming ringing in her ears and the ground coming closer and closer, Iris was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, she had done something terribly stupid. Before this 'maybe' could turn into a 'definitely', she saw a familiar streak of red and yellow charging right at her and a second later, she felt warm and strong arms around her, keeping her safe.

Before she could properly process what just had happened, Iris was already gently set down on the ground again by Barry, who was giving her a quick once-over to make sure she was unharmed. Despite being more than eager to whoop the asses of the guys who just had been shooting at his _**girlfriend**_ , Barry still managed to exert enough self-control to ask Iris about the situation at hand first: “Oh wait – how many guys are up there?”

“Two. And they both have guns,” Iris answered breathlessly, the adrenaline from jumping out of a window on the 15th floor still rushing through her. 

In an blink of an eye Barry disappeared, the gust of wind that accompanied his sudden departure disheveling Iris's already tousled hair even more. Three gun shots sounded and a second later, Barry was back in his previous spot, guns clattering to the ground.

“So... that was like a crazy trust exercise, huh?” He grinned, cocking his head to the side.

Iris stared at him wide-eyed: “Did you just quote a Disney movie to me?”

Although it was way too dark to tell (and the mask concealed most of his face), Iris was pretty sure that Barry was blushing; he seemed to have found quite an interest in his shoes all of a sudden.

Iris shook her head, trying hard to suppress a giggle: “You are such a dork!”

“Ehm, anyway,” Barry clumsily changed the subject, waving his hand dismissively, “what was that about? Those guys shooting at you?”

“Oh, that,” Iris shrugged off casually (although the glint in her eyes gave away her excitement), ”turns out that these two were involved in a big real estate scam; unlawfully turning people out of their homes, breaking up families...”

“Well now they are taking a good long nap until the police comes by to pick 'em up,” Barry said, shrugging nonchalantly. 

Only now did the realization catch up with Iris that mere minutes ago, she had been in free fall, plummeting to the ground and to her certain death if Barry hadn't been there on time.

“Thank you for coming!!” She exclaimed breathlessly, pulling Barry into tight embrace.

Iris could feel Barry grinning, giving her reassuring squeeze.

“Of course. Anything for you.” They separated and Barry's tone of voice turned into a more playful one: “Besides, I need you to stay alive for our date tomorrow. You promised me heavenly coffee.”

“You won't be disappointed,” Iris assured him, beaming, “best cup of coffee in Central City, I swear.” She then straightened up, readjusted the bag on her shoulder and gave him one of her patented teasing looks: “May I trouble you for a lift home?”

Images of the mess he had left behind in his lab upon receiving Iris's distress call came to Barry's mind, before he focused his attention back on Iris with her disheveled hair and sparkling eyes and the smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth. He decided that he could clean up later.

“Why, yes indeed, Miss. Seeing upright citizens such as yourself safely to their homes is actually part of superhero regulations.”

Iris theatrically put a hand to her heart, “Oh my, what a service, indeed.”

The speedster just grinned at her, then picked her up, bridal-style. Iris made sure that her bag was safely tucked away, before snuggling up to Barry. And off they went.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since in this story, Barry hadn't known Iris when he had gotten his powers (and them meeting at Jitters was the first indication of his speed on the show), I decided to go with the original origin story, back from Showcase #4 from 1956 (but seriously, hailing a cab and running past it *is* kind of anticlimactic ;)  
> The scene of Wally tapping into the speed force while playing ball with Barry (or the Flash, rather) is from 'Born to Run' (before they are playing ball in the comic, Barry first tries to find out if Wally has powers by knocking over a microscope - only for Wally being too slow to catch it; that kind of reminded me of Wally not catching Joe's mug on the show ;)  
> Oh and orignally, Kid Flash's costume looked exactly like the Flash costume, so I added that in here.
> 
> I really liked the 'trust fall' in 2x03, so I incorporated that into the chapter (plus, I always had to think of the trust fall from Frozen somehow and finally had a chance to add that to the scene).  
> Also, I think I'm starting to feel more comfortable writing Cisco, too (he just has watched so many movies I've barely even heard of... I'm trying to just fit in the movies I know and also try to watch more Cisco-approved movies when I find the time ;)
> 
> Please let me know what you think of this chapter!


	4. Date Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Date night is here!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi and sorry again for the long wait (sad how all my chapter notes start out with this...), but I hope this new (and long) chapter is gonna make up for it a little :)

The next morning, Iris was back at her desk at CCPN. She was currently contemplating what issue she should tackle for her next article (while also mentally going through a list with everything she still had to prepare for tonight's date with Barry) when all of a sudden, a plate with a Danish was shoved right in front of her face -

“Not a bad job with that story on those real estate frauds, West,” Iris's mentor, Mason Bridge, said, expectantly looking at Iris and the pastry he was offering to her.

“Um, thanks,” she replied mystified, blindly accepting the dish in front of her – Mason wasn't exactly big on giving compliments (or sharing any sort of food). In fact, just a month ago he had completely dismissed any of Iris's attempts to get some sort of advice from her assigned mentor, snidely pointing out that any idiot with a laptop could write a blog. It had taken a lot of persistence and hard work on her side to finally be in her mentor's good graces.

Iris eyed the pastry skeptically: “So you just came by for an almost-compliment and a Danish?”

“Actually,” Mason admitted while conspiratorially leaning forward and producing a folder he had been holding onto with his other hand, “I'm currently working on something that might interest you.”

“Oh, okay,” Iris replied, pleasantly surprised that the senior journalist was willing to let her in on one of his investigations, “shoot.”

“You see,” Mason started, pulling out a photograph from the file he had brought along, “I have noticed that Simon Stagg has been AWOL for some time now...”

“So?” Iris commented, raising a quizzical eyebrow, before examining the picture she'd been given. “He's never been one to appear at many social events or otherwise... He's always been more of a recluse, right?”

“Never like this. I've been digging deeper, contacting assistants as well as board members of Stagg Industries... **Nobody** has seen or heard from Mr. Stagg for more than 4 months now.”

Iris's eyes widened with realization: “ **Oh.** ” She drew her chair nearer to her mentor, handing him back the photo.

“'Oh', indeed.” Mason agreed, putting the photo back into the file and pulling out another, “and all my trails lead to one person: Dr. Harrison Wells.”

“Harrison Wells?” Iris echoed hollowly, the weird feeling she'd had whenever she was around said scientist reemerging once again.

“Yeah,” Mason confirmed, “he was the last person to meet with Mr. Stagg, in addition to other quite shady implication.”

Iris had a sinking feeling in her stomach. The worst thing of all was, that as much as she wanted to, she couldn't bring herself to completely disregard Mason's suspicions.

Still, Iris came to the scientist's defense – after all, he had provided his facility and know-how to help out her nephew for the past three weeks:

“But why would Dr. Wells do that? I mean, obviously the launch of the particle accelerator was not a good choice of action, but he seems to really want to redeem himself – he and his team took good care of my boyfriend when he had suffered an injury from the explosion of the particle accelerator and for the past three weeks, they helped in any way possible when my nephew was in a coma due to a lightning strike. I have come to know the people that work there. They are good people, Mason.”

“Well, I'm not saying that anyone else at S.T.A.R. Labs is involved in Simon Stagg's disappearance. Maybe they aren't aware of their boss's wrongdoings or they are good actors.

-But it's not just Stagg. I mean, don't tell me that after all that time you apparently spent over at S.T.A.R. Labs, you didn't notice anything fishy happening there?”

Again, Iris felt queasy, though this time because she **did** know what was going on at the research facility. She had witnessed the workings of the crime-fighting unit stationed there first-hand.

“Fishy in what way exactly?” she asked tentatively, worried about how much Mason had already found out (after all, this man had won the Pulitzer Prize for his amazing investigative journalistic work. Twice.)

“Well, for once – what are they doing there now that they are basically without funding and most of their staff?” – Iris couldn't help but remember asking herself the same question when she had tried to find out more about Barry and S.T.A.R. Labs – “And what about these silent acts of benevolence you just told me about? Wouldn't exactly this kind of thing help them regain the public's trust again?”

“I don't know – maybe they first want to figure out _**how exactly**_ they can help the public before drawing attention back to S.T.A.R. Labs? It's not like there wouldn't be plenty of people eager to pick apart every single deed done by them... But I get where you're coming from,” Iris admitted, an idea forming in her head how she could protect Team Flash's base of operations from discovery, “I could try to find out: interview the staff, find out what their specific plans for the future are – maybe even snoop around the place if there is something off about their answers...”

Iris's answer seemed to surprise her mentor: “ **You** would be willing to investigate your little group of friends?”

“I stand by my statement that they are good people,” Iris repeated, thinking of how devotedly Cisco and Caitlin had taken care of Wally. But thinking of Wally and her uneasy feeling whenever she was around Dr. Wells, also made it easier for Iris to commit herself to Mason's cause, “But admittedly I haven't known them for long and if there is anything unlawful” – aside from vigilantism, Iris added silently in her mind – “going on, I want to know. I need to know.”

“Alright, West,” Mason said, clearly impressed, “maybe I did underestimate your 'gumption' after all.”

Iris couldn't help but smile. The relationship with her mentor certainly had come a long way since his dismissive demeanor at the very beginning at her stubborn determination to prove her journalistic worth.

“Maybe,” she echoed while accepting the thick folder Mason handed over to her. He gave her an approving nod, before leaving Iris to study the file.

* * *

When Iris got home from work, the young journalist was still reeling from the accumulation of incriminating leads Mason had gathered on Dr. Wells. She didn't get a chance to dwell on it today though, because she had tons of desserts to prepare for her date with Barry (and Iris knew that if she sat down at home to conduct her own investigation, she would never be able to pry herself away from her research – it probably could wait for one more day).

 

Iris was still in the kitchen, cutting up some fruit for a fruit salad (to assuage the guilty conscience of a whole dinner only consisting of brownies, mousse au chocolat and muffins), when her dad and Wally returned from S.T.A.R. Labs.

“Hey, you two,” Iris greeted the pair, “how was your day?”

This simple question was enough to get Wally started: He told his aunt about his new training exercises, poked fun at the look on his grandpa's face when he had watched his grandson run for the very first time (Joe just stood there, shaking his head in disbelief, like he could not wrap his mind around this even now) and excitedly showed Iris the protein bars Cisco and Caitlin had given him (“Because I use up much more energy now”, the 8-year-old explained precociously, while his eyes were flitting nervously back and forth between his aunt and the baked goods before him). The young speedster went on, talking about Barry dropping by during his lunch time and the realization of Team S.T.A.R. Labs that the young speedster's biggest issue was staying still and concealing his powers, rather than working on them. Which in turn elicited a bunch of complaints about these new 'training exercises' Team Flash had come up with for the 8-year-old: building houses of cards, playing mikado and jenga...-

“It's the wooorst,” Wally declared dramatically, snatching a piece of brownie from the box Iris just had put them into.

Despite making use of his powers, Wally still wasn't fast enough for Iris not to notice.

“Hey, those are not for you!” Iris chided the boy, who in turn gave her his best puppy dog eyes:

“Um... Did I mention that I use up much more energy now? I need fuel! ”

Iris couldn't help the chuckle escaping her lips at this clumsy excuse:

“Fine. You can lick out the empty bowls… if you promise me that you will work on your homework your Mom sent earlier.”

Wally scrunched up his nose at the mention of 'homework' but agreed to the proposed deal nonetheless. In a matter of seconds, the bowls were licked clean, so Iris barely had any work to do when washing the dirty dishes. The young woman quickly got ready for her date, double-checked if she had packed the keys to Jitters, and ruffled her nephew's hair one more time (who was now bent over his homework dutifully, brows furrowed and shoulders slumped in misery). She then said good-bye to her dad and Wally, before picking up the various boxes, carefully balancing the ridiculous amount of desserts (and fruit salad).

* * *

Iris parked right in front of Jitters so she wouldn't have to walk too far while carrying all these bowls and boxes. She was positively giddy when she unlocked the door. Maybe it was the chocolate she had snacked on while preparing the different kinds of desserts (and, unsurprisingly, most of the desserts Iris had made included chocolate in some form), maybe it was the familiar feeling of being alone in the coffee shop once again after all these crazy weeks... Maybe it was the anticipation of having another, proper date with Barry (or whatever qualified as 'proper' when you were dating a superhero). Anyway, Iris couldn't help herself but be excited. She hauled the boxes with food inside, setting them down on the counter. With a smile, she discovered a small note Tracy had left behind (under a plate with cronuts, Iris's favorite dish to order at the coffee shop). Iris's former colleague wished her a fun date (of which she hoped to hear about soon in great detail, the barista had added, complete with a winky-face). Iris rolled her eyes in fond annoyance – throughout her entire time at Jitters, Tracy had never stopped pointing out cute guys to Iris, sometimes even purposely serving other customers so Iris would have to take the orders from “the hotties”. It was only natural that Tracy would want to know everything about the guy who had finally managed to sweep Iris off her feet.

Shaking her head at the other girl's incorrigibleness, Iris pocketed the note and began arranging the food. While doing so, her gaze wandered to the special's board above, getting caught on the brand-new special. Her lips curved into a smile.

* * *

Meanwhile at the West house, Wally was still struggling to get his homework done (a process which was considerably slowed down due to the boy's inability to concentrate on it for more than five minutes instead of letting his eyes wander about the room and sighing pitifully while doing so). Suddenly the phone rang, providing a real diversion from the current math problem Wally was so desperate to ignore.

“You keep on working on your homework; don't think I don't see what you're doing there,” Joe said while heading for the phone, familiar with his grandson's penchant for distracting himself from his school work.

Begrudgingly, Wally returned his attention to his math problem. Still, the boy couldn't help but notice that his grandpa was not happy with the call he had received.

And indeed, Joe had any reason to be displeased. Captain Singh just had told him that he was desperately needed at the precinct. As it was already fairly late and Joe had no way of knowing how long he was going to stay over at the police station, he couldn't exactly bring Wally with him to work. Of course he could call Iris, who would return home immediately if she had to, but Joe knew how much his baby girl had been looking forward to her date with Barry and all the work she had put into it; he did not have the heart to ruin that evening for her. But now that Wally was having _powers_ (a concept the detective still had to come to terms with), Joe didn't really feel comfortable leaving the boy alone nor asking their neighbor, Mrs Johnson (who had occasionally looked after his grandson before), to keep an eye on Wally.

Aimlessly looking through the contacts on the phone, Joe stumbled across the number of 'Dr. Caitlin Snow' (who had given her private number to the Wests while Wally was in his coma , assuring them that they could call her “at any time”). This wasn't a medical emergency, but Joe had noticed the genuine interest the doctor had shown in her new patient and figured he could at least give it a try.

His call was picked up immediately and after a short explanation of his problem, Caitlin was quick to assure Joe that it was no problem at all. She only asked if she could bring Cisco along (who apparently was over at the doctor's house for a movie night).

Having seen both the doctor and engineer taking good care of his grandson just this morning, Joe was more than fine with that, said his good-bye and hung up.

 

Twenty minutes later, the door bell rang and Joe and Wally were greeted by Caitlin and Cisco with a chipper “hi Detective West, hey Wally.”

Joe let the two scientists in, thanking them sincerely for coming over. He quickly informed them where they could find some pizza money (Wally's face brightened up considerably) and when Wally's curfew was (the boy's expression grew slightly sullen). Then, ruffling his grandson's hair and reminding the boy to “be good” and thanking the two scientists once more, the detective hurried off to the precinct.

“Soo... this is gonna be fun,” Cisco said humorously, breaking the awkward tension which had hung over the three Joe had left-behind.

Wally eyed the engineer suspiciously: “We are not gonna play any more games to train my ability to stay still, are we?”

“Nah... I've brought you something else to expand upon your education-” Cisco was interrupted by Wally groaning, still fed-up from doing weeks-worth of homework the past afternoon.

The engineer continued with a wide grin, pulling out something from his messenger bag: “Time you finally watch 'The Incredibles'.”

The young speedster's face brightened instantaneously.

* * *

About fifteen minutes after the arranged time for their date, Barry finally zipped into Jitters, hair disheveled and hands full.

“I am so sorry! I was just about to leave work when Captain Singh demanded a specific file on his desk tonight and on my way here there was some maniac-driver who almost knocked over some old lady crossing the street – why is it always some little old lady? – anyways, I'm so sorry. And I got you a flower,” the speedster added apologetically, holding out a slightly rumpled red rose.

Iris accepted the flower with a bright smile and a kiss.

“It's okay. Gave me more time to set up dinner. Because it's so nice outside, I thought we could dine up on the rooftop – it always was my favorite place at Jitters,” Iris said, while leading Barry up the stairs, carefully navigating him so he wouldn't see the board with specials, so it would be a surprise for later.

 

When they arrived at the rooftop they were met with a beautifully set up picnic, with tea candles and twinkle lights illuminating the scene.

“Wow,” was all Barry could say, “wow.”

Iris smiled brightly: “This is such a nice spot, right? I used to hang out here all the time after work.”

“It is really beautiful,” Barry agreed, “And you did an amazing job setting this whole thing up.”

Iris blushed, flattered, ”thanks.” She snuck an arm around Barry's waist, hugging him close: “I'm glad we finally made date night happen again. I missed that.”

“Me too,” Barry agreed, pressing a kiss on the top of Iris's head.

The journalist closed her eyes for a brief moment, relishing in the gesture. When she opened them again to look up at Barry, there was that familiar glint of mischief in them: “So, are you going to save me from my impending doom a.k.a chocolate coma?”

“Depends,” Barry said teasingly.

“On what?”

“How good that 'heavenly' coffee of yours really is.”

* * *

“So what do you think of this educational film?” Cisco asked, turning off the tv and cutting off the jazzy theme song of the DVD menu, “Cool?”

“Super cool!” Wally agreed. Despite his enthusiastic reply, the boy couldn't completely mask the yawn he was stifling.

“But now you really should get ready for bed,” Caitlin said, whose watchful eye did not miss the tiredness the young speedster tried so hard to cover up.

“Awww,” Wally bemoaned, putting on his best puppy dog pout in an attempt to change Caitlin's mind.

He did not succeed.

“Sorry,” Caitlin apologized, looking sympathetic, “but you really have to get enough sleep; your body still has to adjust to your new powers and changed metabolism. That sort of thing requires a lot of energy. Besides,” the doctor added, smiling, “I don't think your grandpa would allow us to look after you anymore if he came back from work and you were still up... And that would be a shame, wouldn't it be?”

That was enough to make the 8-year-old admit his defeat. Yawning once more, he climbed up the stairs to change into his pajamas.

“Impressive,” Cisco commented from his position on the couch, munching on some peanuts, “though I'm afraid you just spoiled our chance of earning us the honorary title of 'cool aunt' and 'uncle' respectively.”

Caitlin just rolled her eyes: “With Barry being a superhero and Iris working as an investigative reporter, trying to fulfill her nephew's every wish, I think those titles are pretty much taken, Cisco.”

“Still,” the engineer pouted, shifting slightly to make space for his friend on the couch,” you totally should have let him stay up with us – it would have increased my chance of getting to be the 'cool uncle'!”

Caitlin rolled her eyes and sat down next to Cisco, taking a handful of peanuts: “I wasn't aware that I had to look after two children.”

* * *

Barry and Iris were lying stretched out on their picnic blanket, both completely stuffed and content.

“If only we could see the stars, then this night would be perfect,” Iris sighed, her head comfortably resting on Barry's chest.

“One of the side effects of light pollution,” Barry sighed, absentmindedly playing with Iris's hair, “it's called 'Sky glow'. Light in the city that is directed or reflected upwards via surfaces then is scattered by the atmosphere and directed back to the ground, making it look like there is a glowing dome over the city. It was recently estimated that one third of the world's population could no longer see the Milky Way, among them 80% of Americans and 60% of Europeans.“

Iris chuckles “Only you could turn a simple observation about a lack of stars into a **real** downer – all with the power of science.”

The forensic scientist blushed: “I didn't mean to-”

Fondly shaking her head, Iris propped herself up to cut him off with a kiss. “It's okay. Cutest nerd that I know, remember?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I read about light pollution and sky glow over at wikipedia and darksky.org, in case anyone is interested in that topic :)
> 
> Please feel free to leave a comment if you want to! :)

**Author's Note:**

> I have not read many Flash comics yet; I just have Barry Allen's pre-Flashpoint run and the 80-page giant issue... I read "Born to Run" for Wally's background story though... (I'm a pre-New 52 kinda girl ;)  
> I'm not exactly sure how far away Blue Valley, Nebraska is from Central City, Missouri (if I recall correctly?); Wally himself said that it was 4,000 miles long and took 9 weeks - but I'm pretty sure he was just exaggerating (it probably felt like that with him being so impatient and excited to visit his aunt), Iris drove him home at the end of that story arc... I doubt that it took them 9 weeks ;)  
> Mary and Rudolph West have a difficult relationship with their son (and there is some really weird stuff going on in later issues but that was too crazy for my taste); I decided to go with what I've seen in "Born to Run" only - they are not bad people, they are just not that great as Wally's parents because they lack some kind of connection with their son (that Iris - and in this story Joe as well - share with him); they still love him though.  
> Rudy is quite emotionally distant from his son in the comics, too - there, it is because of his rocky relationship with Wally's grandfather, Ira. We don't have an Ira West but an awesome Joe West who is one of the most emotionally open dads I've seen on tv; so I felt there had to be a good reason why Rudy would be as closed off as he is...
> 
> Tell me if you would like more 'inside' info like this (it would not be a regular thing, I think) or if I bore you with my comic book babbling ;)


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